Today has been really good -- a very nice change-up.

Journalist stuff: I have a personal essay up on CityLab today! It's called "A Pilgrim in Chicagoland" and it's about what happened when I finally went home and... bought as much Chicago-branded merchandise as I could. I hope you enjoy it/can relate to it/share it, because popular-on-social-media ( Read more... )

A few weeks after I got so mad at The Lions of Al-Rassan I had to put it away and blog about it, I finally finished the damn thing today.

Okay. Talk to me about your GGK hate, guys.

Because I for one would like to understand how this man's editors failed to notice that rather than showing or telling his story (and oooooh, hahaha, do I have ( Read more... )

Oh no, I wrote another 2,000-word book review about a book I wish I'd liked more!

A Stranger in Olondria was an interesting experience, because I sort of felt like I failed, in my role as a reader. I had a really hard time trying to picture the universe the author was painting, and I have to wonder if that's because I went in expecting a non- ( Read more... )

Okay okay okay! AAAAHHHH. I meant to be working on my feature article two hours ago, and I would not nearly have been this lax/distracted/procrastinate-y if our teacher hadn't given us an extension until midnight, but -- it's way more immediately satisfying to write up a book review of Alif the Unseen for
( Read more... )

I made this beef, mushroom and beer stew for my dad while he was here and he could not stop complimenting me on it, which is something for a guy who teases me constantly about my inability to cook. Guinness worked really well for the beer, but you can use anything you've got onhand. I bet it would be equally amazing with only the cremini mushrooms ( Read more... )

...and I did! The Tiger's Wife: What I wanted and what I got is more of a reaction post than a review, but there's a little of that too ( Read more... )

From earlier this evening: Whoa, just woke up from a convenient Odinsleep. (If you haven't seen the Odin's A+ Guide to Parenting strips or any of the rest of hyuuman's Thor art, you're missing out!)

Presently: Hey, just finished The Great Gatsby for the first time in my life. Wow, I loved it! Much different from how I'd always imagined. Mr. ( Read more... )

mithrigil, I know we had discussed me sending you The Kingdom of Ohio when I was done, but I'm not sure I can, in good conscience, inflict this novel on anybody, even if it was theoretically about the New York subway system. Here is the train of my Goodreads review, in three parts:( Well, this is a good sign. )

lindensphinx was rambling a bit about formative texts she'd never read (I too have to read Arcadia sometime), and one thing led to another, and... and I have this list. It is an imperfect list, especially because I don't have any of my shelves in front of me, and even if I did, most of my books are still somewhere in Ohio. But it is a fairly good list for ( Read more... )